I have had a jar of dried peas sitting on my counter for a while. I thought they looked beautiful, but thought I should actually use them. So I made pea soup. I thought it was going to be harder, but I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was! I used a recipe from allrecipes.com, but adjusted it to fit what I had in the house. You should try it sometime. It is amazing!
2 cups dried split peas
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
1/2 teaspoon hot peppers sauce
1-2 cups cubed ham
1 onion chopped
2 potatoes diced
1 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 chicken bouillon cube
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
In a large stock pot, add split green peas, chicken broth, water, hot pepper sauce, ham, chopped onion, diced potatoes, bay leaves, pepper, chicken bouillon cube, soy sauce and red pepper flakes and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered for about 1 hour 30 min, stirring occasionally. Or until you think it is done.
** The recipe says to take out part of it to process in a blender or food processor. I didn't do that because I like thick, chunky soup. And the peas had cooked down. You can add 2 cups of cream at the end too, but I didn't.
Yum!
